My Work History

Brian Groth’s Work History (Resumé/CV)

Brian.Groth@microsoft.com /  www.BrianGroth.com

 

Highlights & Summary	Primary Strengths (as verified with previous managers) Capacity to execute at a business and a technical level Business management skills (ROB, Consulting, Operational, Reporting, Strategy, etc.) Ability to instill confidence and trust in people Organizational skills (of information) and the ability to find and work with the right person, regardless of who and where in the company Growing and maintaining employee development and team morale Technical skills required to understand what our products can do and being able to come up with solutions based on that platform Responsiveness to my customer (direct customer, partner, or fellow employee in a subsidiary) Management / Leadership Skills Employee Satisfaction: I constantly receive consistent positive manager feedback, have always had satisfied employees, and set/track clear goals and metrics for the team. Employee Careers: I have managed full-time employees for 5+ years, assisting many to move into other roles, gain skills on the job and with formal training as needed. Emerging Leadership Program: In February 2005, I was nominated and was part of program at Microsoft (EXPO) to grow as a future leader in the company. Presentation Skills 1:Many: I have presented to internal audiences of about 1000 at Microsoft sessions, such as MGB, MTB, and Envision on the latest field-ready enterprise-focused demos. 1:Few: I have presented enterprise-class solutions to CxOs and their direct reports at the Redmond Microsoft Technology Center (MTC) and at the Executive Briefing Center (EBC). I have also presented the Windows Live business and demos, plus enterprise-class solutions to groups of analysts, customers, and the press.    Project Management Skills Overall: I received the Gold Star award in May 2008 for the work I did getting Messenger TV built and deployed to 20 markets in 12 languages. Budgets: I have managed million dollar budgets and secured hundred’s of thousands of dollars in cross funding from other teams within Microsoft. MSF: I initiated the process of using the Microsoft Services Framework as our methodology to manage the development of our demo “platform”, which consists of 14 virtual machines, and dozens of different Microsoft and partner products. MOF: I assisted in the process of using the Microsoft Operations Framework to manage the ongoing support and operations of our demo “platform”. Outsourcing: When necessary, I hire vendors for specific tasks, but have also written and posted Request for Proposals for much bigger projects to be outsourced and implemented the outsourcing process. Technical Skills Microsoft Platform: Current roles: I have a good and broad understanding of the Live Services platform and the solutions that can be built on top of the APIs. This includes providing technical support and leadership to the regional business development team in regards to which APIs can/should be used for regional partnership deals. Previous roles: I have a good and broad understanding of Microsoft’s entire platform server and client, so I understand how the collaboration, communication, management, development, analysis, and integration can work together to create unique solutions and opportunities for customers. In-Depth Demos/Solutions: I was the technical lead for the architecture, development, and demo scenarios of enterprise-class solutions used by the Microsoft Technology Centers around the world. See http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=38823 for a very brief overview of one portion of our current demo. I also build and present demos that highlight the consumer benefits of Windows Live. Tools: I have managed and architected sales-related tools used by the world-wide sales communities.
Work History Microsoft 1994 – Present	Director of Global Account Programs (March 2010 – present) Technologist: Bring new Microsoft technologies to the biggest  advertisers of the world by explaining them to our Global Account Directors and advertisers as necessary, but in terms that helps them to envision new marketing possibilities.   Social Media: Define the all-up social media story for Microsoft (a cross-company effort), while simultaneously work with various Trade Marketing (B2B marketing) teams to build the “pitch” for Microsoft Advertising. Customer Presentations: Present our social media story to customers at the Microsoft Executive Briefing Center (EBC) in Redmond and to customers and partners/agencies in the field. Ad Solutions: Work across the different product and business groups to define new opportunities for advertising, specifically around digital marketing. EMEA Director of Windows Live (November 2008 – March 2010) Leadership: Provide regional level product management for Windows Live, providing direction on remedial action to markets and areas where necessary. Provide regional-level consumer and partner feedback for business groups in Redmond for Windows Live. Strategy: Work with the EMEA team to set the overall online strategy, with my focus on Windows Live, based on market, competitive, and customer analysis and various frameworks and models to identify opportunities to focus on.   Business Management: Lead regional level marketing activities to attain financial and KPI targets, with special emphasis on technical support and how to use the Live Services and Live Framework APIs. Consumer Marketing: Support corporate teams and local markets in developing relevant value propositions. Drive local innovation across online services and accelerate adoption of best practices by standardizing and shipping top initiatives back to EMEA while also helping the global Last-Mile-Innovation team focus on the right projects with and for EMEA. Regional (EMEA) Product Manager: Windows Live (October 2006 – October 2008) Leadership: Liaison for Product management and feedback between countries and corporate headquarters. Develop and deliver Messenger TV (http://messengertv.msn.com/), which brought MSN Video to Messenger users for peer-to-peer video watching.   Consumer Marketing: Product marketing/execution support for subsidiaries with small teams. Marketing research/intelligence from internal and external sources. Marketing ROI and sharing best practices. Aggregation of feedback on corporate campaigns Community: Build a strong Windows Live community in EMEA and drive excellence in consumer marketing for Windows Live. PR: Pan-subsidiary marketing events and associated AR/PR events Business Manager: Online Services Group (February 2006 – September 2006) Re-Org: Project manage the creation and initial rollout of a new organizational blueprint and operating guidelines for the sales and marketing employees in the field Business Manager: World-Wide Microsoft Technology Center (MTC) (July 2004 – January 2006) Operational Data Gathering and Analysis – per MTC Metrics Gathering, Analysis, and Consulting based on the Analysis – per MTC Rhythm of the Business Calendar and Activity Planning (RoB) MTC Justification Guidance (why to start a new one) MTC Brand Governance MTC Launch Guidance (how to start a new one) MTC Operational Guidance (MTC Leadership) HQ and Business Group Connections with the local MTCs Managing the WW MTC Strategy & Support Team Budget Group Program Manager: Redmond Microsoft Technology Center (MTC) (June 2002 – June 2004) Managerial: Managed full-time employees, with high satisfaction (WHI and LEI, in Microsoft-terms) scores, plus positive managerial feedback. Skills honed, learned, practiced, and shared with other managers within Microsoft include: Aligning team and individual goals to the organizational goals “Actively Listening” and providing appropriate positive and critical feedback Negotiating differences on the team and between teams Setting a clear vision for the team to follow and work towards Project Management: Implemented Microsoft Solution Framework (MSF) processes as the primary lead for the Contoso Demo used for the Envisioning Sessions and Strategy Briefings at the world-wide Microsoft Technology Centers. Customers: CxO-level presentations at the Redmond MTC to numerous Fortune-1000 type of customers. These presentations include: Demonstrations of enterprise-type solutions based on the Microsoft platform. Discussion of the customer’s opportunities and problems, and how Microsoft technologies can assist the solutions. Presentations: Presented to audiences of 1000 or more at Microsoft sessions, such as MGB, MTB, and Envision for the DemosRUs Extravaganza. Community: Pulled together the world-wide MTC employees to create a new community within Microsoft via newsletters, web site, distribution lists, events, and personal visits to the facilities. Training: Helped employees identify training needed and tracked the training employees took. Also created, coordinated, and ran Envisioning Session training for the employees in the MTCs in Asia. Group Program Manager: DemosRUs(an internal team name) (January 2000 – May 2002) Managerial: Managed full-time employees, with high WHI and LEI scores. Kept the team’s morale high through multiple organizational changes.     Customers: EBC presentations and an Office XP demo presentation at Weyerhaeuser’s headquarters, which I coordinated with the account team. Presentations: Presented to internal audiences of 1000 or more at Microsoft sessions, such as MGB, MTB, and Envision for the DemosRUs Demo Extravaganza. Also presented to a few customers at customers sites. Technology: Primary lead for a variety of GTM demos that the team created and delivered for the TSP field on the TAN DVDs and on OnlineDemos.net. Also created the first “demo platform” consisting of multiple virtual machines for the product groups to built different demos on top of, which saved the TSP community time and effort when learning new demos. Lead Program Manager: DemosRUs(an internal team name) Managerial: Managed a team of full-time employees and contractors, with high OHI (manager feedback) scores. Presentations: Presented to internal audiences of 1000 or more at Microsoft sessions, such as MGB, MTB, and Envision for the DemosRUs Extravaganza. Project Management: Lead for a variety of Information Worker demos, including many of the demos for the launch of Office XP. Technology: Architected and contracted the development of the SPS Chameleon (SPS configuration) tool, which was very popular with the TSP and partner community. Lead Program Manager: SalesKit Managerial: Managed a team of full-time employees and contractors, with high OHI (manager feedback) scores. Project Management: Lead for the SalesKit DVD, including PM, Development, Testing, and Release. Technologist: ECU (Enterprise Customer Unit) Technology: Technical lead for ECUWeb, the internal website for world-wide ECU community. Projects: Special projects relating to how Microsoft support can “deal” with the Internet. Purpose: Liaison for new and upcoming technologies for the organization.   Support Engineer: CNS-PSS (Corporate Network Support, Product Support Services) Customer: Front-line support for OS/2 LAN Manager and all products that used the LanMan client bits, such as Windows for Workgroups, Windows NT 3.x, and the DOS LanMan technologies. Technology: Network Monitor specialist for SMB network traffic.
Boeing 1991-1993	Computer Support for the Interiors Group in Boeing Commercial Aircraft Group Support lead for OS/2 and LAN Manager Lead for the migration from OS/2 to Windows 3.1 Support lead and personal trainer for Excel, Word, and PowerPoint
Weyerhaeuser Intern: 1989 & 1990	Computer Support for the offices and factories in Longview, WA Installed and supported all DOS-based PCs Support lead and internal trainer for Excel, Word, and PowerPoint
Technologies	Patent:I have patent number 455041200 that is for “Automatic Detection and Notification of Proximity of Persons of Interest” 300 Level Skills (some development skills)  - I last used these in 2005, but remain competent on understanding current technologies SharePoint Technologies (SPS and WSS) Office 2003, specifically Excel, Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, including macro development and some development with Visual Studio Tools for Office 200 Level Skills (solid understanding of how to apply technology to solutions) – I last used these in 2005, but remain competent on understanding current technologies Balanced Scorecard Server Visual Basic .NET Web Services Live Communications Server Service Oriented Architecture Smart Clients Speech Server Windows Server Services (IIS, Media, TermServ) Virtual Server / Virtual PC
Education 2005   2004   1994   1991	Six Sigma Green Belt Certification for services and transactional organizations – The Performance Management Group   Meeting the Leadership Challenge – University of British Columbia, Executive Programs   Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE)   BA in Management Information Systems – Western Washington University